Requel - Rafflesia

Requel—RQL out loud—is a runtime and small compiler for describing what an agent may ask of data. .rql files compile to SQL, retrieval queries, and search jobs while keeping the plan reviewable and reproducible.

Refuse silent errors

Requel knows the grain of each relation and the cardinality of each edge. An aggregate that crosses a row-multiplying join is refused before it reaches the database:

$ requel render queries/fanout.rql --params '{}'
error[RQL3001]: fan-out hazard: aggregate over `warehouse.orders` joins
row-multiplying edge `warehouse.order_items` (join_many).

Deliberate exceptions require a reason in the source:

m = allow_fanout(
    reason = "revenue weighted per item on purpose",
    frag = m,
)

Contract

Typed parameters become binds, never SQL structure.
Relation guards apply wherever the relation is used.
.rql is deterministic Starlark: no network, clock, or ambient state.
Tests, schema locks, and the callable surface live beside the ontology in Git.

Start

curl -fsSL https://rafflesia.ai/requel.sh | sh
requel init my-ontology
cd my-ontology
requel test
requel verify

Requel is separate from the Rafflesia homology API. Its complete language and runtime documentation lives in the Requel repository.